CFO Network: Can't Secure the Internet, Only Defend

6/17/2014 7:13PM

Chris Inglis, Former Deputy Director of the National Security Agency, says businesses and government should stop trying to secure the internet and act to defend it. He spoke with WSJ's Siobhan Gorman at the CFO Network in Washington, D.C.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

I ... it is like a meadow with on ... if you can just hear a little bit ... wet ... with DJ D wary about most insiders insist it is increasingly not necessary ... been reading the papers and talking to your friends and colleagues from the private sector ... but it's a four things about cyberspace to production on them entirely well understood by the ... many public to make use of that ... I think therefore we still have some surprises to the tothe asleep for a pickup lines ... aam but the first thing I would say is that cyberspace for an internet writ large ... is not really this massive technology that taxes that's oftentimes this is considered as is just another version of the multiple ... fix it just whatever technology whatever Apple case would need to build make the Brazilian robust and serve the corporate purposes does do that ... this of course a mix of technology and people in critical process and are so internally ... that is almost impossible to use one up from the others he can delegate this to the anti shocking to fix it ... the second thing that surprising is that everything is connected to everything ... convergence is the reality of that space and so for those who think that they govern all clients of summer some barrier firewalls protection ... that I've hold harmless on the parts are generally broken ... into two kinds of people and some of Mr. Schlein likes to say those that the Fed would know that impacted those that don't know the impact of the third reality in this space on the increasingly well aware come in this audience ... is that we're storing well procurement space that was once a place where they were communications racing back and forth ... that reflected or spoke of things the guy that lived outside expects ... the city would move resources we reflect command plans or intellectual property secrets that were held outside ... analysts quart maintenance largely under the ... influence of people simply saying at this moment I might choose to take or its ... amid a push a secret from place to place they are all put my secret and the system ... for all exchange of confidence in the system at least things are stored in that space twenty four hours and a ... couple weeks ago I was about to travelers ... from the pure by Standard routines nice that my ... children who are visiting home from college on the go to the bank to get some I mean is that one ... because Akamai is ... so that you are so you know not within ... my community it's Bitcoin is that this and ones that are safe and they're right there exactly right ... many of us have and want on that ... here's the fourth reality impress weakening of the larger conversation ... it's not possible to secure the space and we should give up on the goal of securing the space ... but it is possible to defend the state's why is it not possible to secure the space because loyal ... to the things that people do the next phase of technology in that space ... and the very ... fact that you want to connect those two ... transactions people who simply generate revenue for companies ... or no hostile entities that you wanna do business with even a diplomatic around ... the very fact that you're connecting to the mix of stocks that are taking risks by design ... and so the goal of trying to find a way to make this static played in journalistic your ... media call on me to presume breach me to presume that these things are deficient by the sign ... and defend them accordingly it is possible to do that ... for pars a fundamentally different approach to cyberspace ... so when you learned most ... were most about ... the fact that people are waiting for some future problem the way for a boom in the night there's a lot of discussion about a cycle Pearl Harbor ... um I think that misses the fact that this problem is already with this ... and it's not over Here clap of thunder in the night ... oh actually are suffering at this moment on this this insidious staffing or spread ... whether to the theft of intellectual property ... or the confidence of the system so be resilient to get some Sprite and I'm threat that comes out is that some point the future ... they will not be because we've not made the necessary investments at this moment on ... any number of companies have ... suffered the loss of their intellectual property ... and think they can weather even back when that becomes aware of them because they'll out innovate whatever adversaries to have in the world ... I think that that's become ... increasingly less true than it was twenty thirty fifty years ago ... um you know they are very um ... worthy adversaries in the world in the competitive sense and who not only have our intellectual property ... or can innovate with the best of us and so this insidious ... aspect of it which is the damage already gone ... amid a slower rate the thing I worry about them